In the UK, we have a famous radio programme, “Desert Island Discs”. The idea is that a guest (usually a celebrity or a politician) is interviewed, and invited to choose:
8 recorded tracks
A book
A luxury
that they would take with them if they were marooned on a desert island. They are assumed to have a wind up gramophone to play the records, and they get the Bible (or Koran), and the complete works of Shakespeare whether they like it or not.
The idea is that their choice of records, book and luxury gives the listener an insight into the interviewee’s psyche that an ordinary interview wouldn’t allow. In reality, a lot of guests deliberately choose things that they think will make them sound good. Some choose 8 obscurely intellectual classical compositions; middle aged politicians choose “hip and happening sounds” that they imagine will make people think they are young; and so on.
8 is a bit many for a forum thread. So: you are to be marooned on a desert island. You get the Bible or its equivalent in your religion (or a Richard Dawkins book if you are an atheist!); you get the complete works of Shakespeare. You also get a decent MUni. You can’t choose survival aids or rescue equipment. Now choose:
I’ll start: Honky Tonk Women, the Rolling Stones. I used to do the “greasy bop” to this as a teenager at the youth club. Later I used to do it at the rock night at the local club. Then when I left my wife a few years later, it was the first record I played when I set up my hi fi at my new address - and again when I moved to somewhere more permanent. It’s one of the Stones’ classics.
Ever Fallen In Love With (Someone You Shouldn’t have…), Buzzcocks. I bought it 2nd hand off a friend just after it fell out of the charts. Nearly 30 years later, I still think it’s the perfect power pop record, and I always turn the vulume up to 11.
Little Red Rooster, the classic blues song. I have a brilliant version on vinyl performed by Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley.
Book or film: The Coot Club, Arthur Ransome. As kid, I was a big Arthur Ransome fan, and “lived” in his world of sailing adventures. The Coot Club is set in Norfolk, where I used to live, otherwise I’d have chosen the first in the series: Swallows and Amazons.
Layla Eric Clapton. It’s long…I like it. San Lorenzo Pat Metheney. It’s really good. I never get tired of it. Adagio for Strings Samuel Barber. It’s really good. I never get tired of it. It’s a healthy change from the other two.
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevski. Why not be stuck with the best?
The Beatles: Fool On The Hill. Always been my favourite Beatles track, ever since watching The Yellow Submarine.
Elvis Costello: Deep, Dark Truthful Mirror. Off the Spike album, which I listened to endlessly when I was in college.
Everybody Needs Somebody: The Blues Brothers. I defy anyone not to get roused up by watching this.
Book or film: The Producers. The original Mel Brooks version. I can watch the first five minutes again and again and again. I know ALL the words, especially all of Kenneth Mars’: “Hitler… there was a painter! He could paint an entire apartment in ONE afternoon! TWO coats!”
Luxury: Some decent toilet paper. Or maybe a tub of cherry tomatoes.
I’ll need some new school funk to keep me happy. Choosing just one of Beck’s albums to take along is a monumental task, as he’s such a vast body of work, so it’s a toss up. I’m thinking either “Odelay” or “Midnight Vultures”… I can’t help but sing and dance every time I hear these albums.
Next, I’ll need to bang my head once in a while; give me Nirvana’s “Nevermind”. That album contains the most beautifully mastered mix of angst and soul with a good helping of distortion to wash it all down.
Finally, I’ll need something mellow to help me relax and meditate. Since Mozart wasn’t around during the “era of albums” I’ll have to choose one of his works… I can’t recall my favorite symphony off hand, but I’ll gladly take “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”
Having the Bible and Shakespeare’s works at hand, I’m sure my literary cravings would be satiated, so I’ll take a move along: “Casablanca”. For some reason I feel like I’m in the movie when I watch it, and it takes me through a roller coaster ride of emotions, dropping me off in paradise at the end.
Lastly, the luxury. Harper’s already nailed it… I mean, c’mon, if you can’t leave the island physically, why not leave mentally?
This thread sucks Mikefule! So cruel! No one should have to make such painful choices, especially about music. You’re basically committing to listening to something you love to the point you hate it.
Okay, here goes:
3 records
Willie Dixon - The Chess Box
Townes Van Zandt - Live at the Old Quarter
Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington - The Complete Sessions
1 book or film
Time Enough for Love - Robert A. Heinlien
1 luxury item
My guitar case, with my Lowden acoustic, a copy of the Real Book, and 1000 high quality pot seeds inside.
Some greedy people, choosing albums… or guitar cases full of other stuff.
Reminds me of the time I was playing Dungeons and Dragons, and my friend found a ring that allowed him one free wish. He started, “I wish for the following: …” and then gave a long list.
Three single tracks.
One single book or film
One luxury that can't be to do with survival or rescue.
I had this conversation years ago, and said for my single I’d choose Freebird because (a) it’s the longest single I know, and (b) it was a double B side. That was cheating too!
Not greedy, just not foolish. In US-speak, a record can be a single, or an LP with multiple tracks. Since you listed this/that rather than just that, it implied a choice and I chose this. The revisionist history in changing your list offsets my guitar case excess, so we’re even. I get to keep my record albums and my guitar case, along with whatever happens to be in it at the time I’m transported. Better start my packing now.
Seriously, if I had to choose just three individual songs to be stuck with for all time, I’d opt out and go with humming to myself like Pooh.
This is one of the perennial problems with the original radio show. It was started at a time when singles and 78s were the standard recording. There was no real problem then: each “recording” was a single song or piece of music.
Later, albums became the standard format, then tapes, then CDs. Every so often you get someone on the show saying, “What if the one I want was only issued on an album?”
The important thing is to choose three songs or single pieces of music.
Now and again you get twee people who ask for a recording of their child laughing or singing. They probably make up words in Scrabble too.
There are so many tracks that I might choose. I don’t really have the time to whittle them down, so these will still have a bit of “what I first thought of” in them.
Northern Lights by Renaissance. Because I like it, I don’t get tired of it, and I find myself having to sing along either vocally or in my head. It makes me happy.
The Titanic theme. “My Heart Must go on”. For when I am feeling romantic or for when I feel I can’t go on, and need convincing.
Claire de Lune. For when I want to be quiet and at peace.
Book: One of Douglas Hofstadlers probably his Pulitzer prize winner “Godel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal golden braid” , known as EGB for short. Because I doubt I will ever fully understand all its hidden corners, but would be happy trying. I certainly would not choose a novel: I would learn all its words in too short a time.
Luxury: would have to be something to occupy time. a musical instrument, but what? A harp was my first thought, but probably a harmonica for its portability. Although if I have a couple of weeks before the program, that might change to a flamenco guitar.
So cruel! No one should have to make such painful choices, especially about music. You’re basically committing to listening to something you love to the point you hate it.